Yo, yo, yo peeps. Not only is it FRIDAY, (yeah, it’s freaking Friday, party people!) but you’ve managed click on another wondrous (read: long-winded) pseudo-weekly progress report of the Novel-Push Initiative.

N

P

I

YEAH BABY!!!

Quick reminder: I will be out of town (probably without a lappy) during the 21st-24th.

Tally-ho!

1.

Joseph Lewis:

No surprises here, Joseph’s still all out of gum.

He recently made what I feel is a very mature decision regarding his storyline. Fundamental choices like that are difficult, yet rewarding to make. It takes experience to make them correctly.

Isn’t it amazing how one tiny decision can make the entire rest of  your novel more interesting?

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 10,109.
May…
11th: Update @ 1,109 words.
12th: Update @ 1,507 words.
13th: Check-in @ 732 words.
14th: Update @ 1,022 words.

Total so far: 14,479 words.

2.

Nick Enlowe:

With most of finals week behind me (only one more final to take, and it’s online; taking right after I’m done with this post), I’m feeling pretty good about how I’ve been performing this NPI. A big part of it is being in the last quarter of the book instead of the middle. Writing periodically through the month of April helped, too.

I think I’m getting the hang of this ‘write everyday’ thing.

BIC-HOK. Ever seen that before? ‘Butt-in-Chair, Hands-on-Keyboard’. Even if you have writer’s block, just stay in BIC-HOK mode for a bit and magic happens.

I’d like to announce the End of the Book draws near. Very very near. I got chills yesterday just thinking about just how close I am. I’m confident I can finish the book in less than 10 scenes, some of which are already partially written. This is a pretty amazing feeling.

So once I’m done with my final final, just try and hold me back. I want this thing DONE before I go on that trip, dangit!

((Oh wait, I have a bunch of errands to run today to prepare for the grad party tomorrow. >,<))

Tally: 

Previous Total WC: 7,403.
May…
11th: Check-in @ 350 words.
12th: Check-in @ 976 words.
13th: Check-in @ 388 words.
14th: Update @ 1,303 words.

Total so far: 10,420 words.

3.

Merrilee Faber:

Merrilee has exceeded 15k on her novel. (Grats again!) She took her DoR on the 13th, but hey, things happen. You know, things like working. And six hour commutes. Sometimes they happen on the same day. Like the 13th. So yeah.

I’m glad we have a DoR to fall back upon. (Mine’ll be burnt up if I don’t soon finish up my novel. >.<)

I believe in this short amount of time, besides adding about 2k words to her tome, she’s written a more liberating outline and discovered the motives of an antagonist. Believable motives are so important. Kudos to you for thinking about that kind of thing.

Us writers grow, change, and learn a lot in just four days, especially when we’re actively writing. ‘Tis a beautiful thing.

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 6,557.
May…
11th: Check-in @ 806 words.
12th: Check-in @ 385 words.
13th: Day of Reprieve @ 0 words.
14th: Check-in @ 529 words.

Total so far: 8,277 words.

4.

christopher:

At first, I was worried christopher was knocked out, but then I realized he just mislabeled the day on the last two posts. Phew! :)

He’s gotten to a point where a new character was introduced, and is experiencing what it feels like when characters take over your story.

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 4,716.
May…
11th: Check-in @ 428 words.
12th: Check-in @ 461 words.
13th: Check-in @ 359 words.
14th: Check-in @ 444 words.

Total so far: 6,408 words.

5.

RG Sanders:

Still on the ish.

The last four days have been experimental for RG—he’s testing the waters with different ideas coming off his twist, mentioned on the 10th.

Playing the what-if game while writing definitely hinders speed. And the middle of the book is a pretty heinous, swampy place to be doing it. Kudos for pushing through these word counts.

He invoked his DoR on the 11th—Maybe we should introduce a +200 bonus per toddler? :)

Tally:

Previous Total WC: 4,898-ish.
May…
11th: Day of Reprieve @ 0 words.
12th: Check-in @ 399 words.
13th: Check-in @ 456 words.
14th: Check-in @ 378 words.

Total so far: 6,131-ish words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations to all of you on making it to the halfway checkpoint. I have no doubt you’ll all make it to the 31st.

This tally was brought to you in part by ‘bad writing is subjective’, the number four, and readers like you.

disclaimer: No apologies will be issued regarding the nature of the intro.